$1 million approved for taller, safer bucket truck —  

Grant PUD commissioners Tuesday approved $1 million to buy a taller, more reliable bucket truck to enable crews to reach the highest pole structures safely.

The Altec truck would replace a smaller, 20-year-old truck that is slated for retirement.

The boom on the proposed new truck reaches a working height of 150 feet, compared to 100 feet for the old truck. It has “10-wheel drive” for off-road capability. Its boom is insulated, protecting crews from electrical shock, and its bucket is “self-leveling,” creating a safer, level working surface, even on uneven ground.

Altec is already building the truck for a utility equipment show in September. Grant PUD should receive the truck by year end, Transportation Manager Brian Barrows told commissioners. The wait time for such a truck is usually three years.

Commissioners were scheduled to vote on the purchase at their June 13 meeting, but decided to approve the purchase Tuesday to help ensure the truck arrives this year.

$75 million package of electric system upgrades nears completion

An approximately $75 million package of electric-system upgrades over 10 sites around Grant County will be complete by late next year to reduce outage times and increase the electric supply for residential, businesses and industrial growth.

Grant PUD Project Manager David Klinkenberg gave commissioners an update Tuesday.

The projects, which are known collectively as “Design Build 2,” include five new substations, upgrades to existing substations and the new, 10-mile, 115 kV Red Rock transmission line to increase the electric supply to Royal City.

Six of the 10 projects are more than 60% complete. Four are already energized and serving customers in the Quincy, George and Royal City areas.

An invigorated focus on preventive distribution-system maintenance appears to be yielding a much lower total outage time, systemwide, Managing Director of Power Delivery Ron Alexander, told commissioners, Tuesday.

Since total outage time peaked in June 2022 at more than 130 minutes, total outage time dropped below the 100-minute target in August 2022 and continued plummeting downward to less than 70 minutes in November 2022. It has remained well below target ever since. Likewise, average outage duration per Grant PUD customer is also well below the target of .75%, Alexander said.

Crews have been working to replace aged poles, and pole components blamed for pole fires. They’ve also worked on improving “power quality” by updating equipment to ensure voltage remains within acceptable parameters even on the longer distribution lines.

“The improvement I’ve seen over the last 2-3 years — how things have been realigned and repositioned — it’s just brought the bar up higher,” said Commissioner Larry Schaapman, referring to the entire Power Production team. “As a commissioner I couldn’t be more pleased and more proud about what you guys are doing.”

See the full presentation on pages 43-62 of the presentation materials. Hear the full discussion at 1:29:41 on the commission audio.

Commissioners also:

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